Empowering Employees to Improve Business Outcomes

Most, if not all, organizations understand the Increasingly, organizations have adopted what can importance of empowering their employees be called a “New Style of IT” that effectively merges in order to achieve improved business outcomes. workflows and technologies such as cloud computing, Whether it’s driving higher sales, increasing profit social media, mobility and big data in order to meet margins, enhancing customer satisfaction, reducing employees’ needs and enable them to do their jobs employee turnover or any other goal, businesses more effectively. are looking for new approaches and tools to help employees do more to contribute to Improving Outcomes Through organizational success. Employee Empowerment Although employee empowerment can mean different There are three key areas of improved business things to different people, a common fabric to most outcomes that can result from increased employee organizations’ definition is the ability to provide engagement: relevant, actionable information to employees in order to achieve better outcomes. Providing that • Workforce productivity information is done through a combination of more Customer satisfaction efficient workflows, improved collaboration among • workgroups and technology tools. • Employee satisfaction

For organizations of all sizes and in all industries, In each area, technology can certainly be an important the focus is on creating better opportunities for enabler in accomplishing business goals—but employees to carry out their work with greater ease, technology should be seen as a tool, rather than wiping out inefficient work practices and spot a goal in itself. opportunities to create new products and services. Whether they adopt generally accepted key There are countless management theories about the performance indicators such as increased production ideal ways to empower employees to do their jobs per unit of time or embrace customized measures, better and more efficiently. However, it is important all organizations are looking for ways to improve to remember that even innovative new technology workforce productivity. For instance, some is not enough. Instead, organizations need to actively manufacturing companies may make it a priority to foster a culture of innovation and calibrated risk-taking— improve inventory turns to exceed industry averages, some of which is facilitated by technology advances, or services companies may want to focus on selling some by better work processes, and many by both. higher-margin consulting engagements. Whatever the motivation or the productivity measurement, to their organization, job and colleagues.”1 The benefits employees who have essential information at their of employee satisfaction come in many forms, such fingertips and the responsibility and authority to as improved employee retention rates, a stronger make well-informed decisions can be vital to an ability to attract higher-quality job candidates and organization’s productivity. an enhanced sense of collaboration and information sharing among peers and managers. Another essential role for employees is ensuring that they help to improve customer satisfaction. Numerous studies have repeatedly pointed to the Technology Tools for Improved economic benefits that accrue from higher customer Employee Empowerment satisfaction, such as increased purchasing frequency, Putting the right technology into the hands of higher average order size and making credible employees can go a long way toward improving recommendations to peers. The role of employees business outcomes. While technology isn’t a panacea, in helping to improve customer satisfaction is a vital it accomplishes several of the key goals already one in both personal interactions with customers discussed: and managing customer relationship systems. • It can improve productivity by allowing Finally, employee satisfaction is an important employees to work nearly anywhere at anytime, element in ensuring positive business outcomes. and enabling them to make decisions faster Scarlett Surveys, which conducts employee surveys, by having all relevant information available defines employee engagement as “an individual’s when and where they need it. degree of positive or negative emotional attachment

1 “Quality Employee Engagement Measurement and Its Effect on Business Success,” Scarlett Surveys, 2012

2 • Customer satisfaction can be enhanced when Cloud computing is a much-discussed topic among employees have all necessary information on CIOs and other technology leaders, but it is every bit customers and prospects (order history, credit as relevant to business leaders as a way to improve terms, service requests, event activity, etc.). organizational flexibility and agility. Cloud computing— This provides important shortcuts to employees either to supplement or replace in-house systems— so they can deal with customer challenges and empowers employees to focus on business outcomes opportunities without putting the customer without being limited by financial, technical or through a long interview process for information operational limitations of legacy IT infrastructure. that may already reside inside the organization. In the world of big data and advanced analytics, • Technology—from personal devices, innovative employees not only have access to a wealth of software and tightly integrated systems—can help information they need to do their jobs, but they also drive employee satisfaction by making workforce finally have the ability to make sense of all that data members feel like their employers are giving them rather than be overwhelmed by it. Big data empowers every opportunity to succeed. But technology’s employees by applying consistent, highly automated benefits in this area go far beyond emotional steps that uncover often-overlooked or unexpected gratification; it also can allow employees to glimmers of information that may be vital to an make greater contributions to the organization’s organization’s success. As the volume, variety and performance. velocity of data continues to increase, big data tools help employees make the right decision at the right Mobility, cloud computing, big data and social media time, for the right reasons. are some of the most important technologies that form the underpinnings for the New Style of IT. Finally, social media is fast becoming an essential tool When combined with more efficient, streamlined and in empowering employees to do their jobs better. interconnected workloads and with an organizational From marketing and sales to research and development commitment to empowerment and innovation, these and manufacturing, nearly all of an organization’s and other technologies can become key components operating teams are benefitting from social media in in a strategy of employee empowerment. some way, primarily by having real-time information from customers, prospects, partners and industry Mobility is a high-impact technology in employee influencers in an often-unfiltered environment. For empowerment because it allows workers to do their businesses, social media has become an important jobs outside of traditional office environments and tool to help employees engage with customers and normal business hours. Mobility is embodied in other partners. A recent study indicated that nearly organizational strategies such as bring your own device, 80% of consumers would be more inclined to make telecommuting and extended organizations that future purchases because of a brand’s presence on embrace trading partners, suppliers and customers. social media.2 By making available mobile devices and applications in mobility-centric workflows, organizations empower their employees to better serve their customers.

2 Unlocking the power of social media, Internet Advertising Bureau UK, 2013

3 Conclusion Executives from both business and IT disciplines are looking for new ways to integrate more efficient workflows and innovative technologies to improve employee productivity for enhanced business performance. This requires business leaders to take a long, hard look at what information their employees need to do their jobs better, and it also necessitates tight collaboration with IT leadership to implement the right systems to help contribute more to the organization’s success.

From a technology perspective, business and IT teams must build an engagement layer on top of their legacy systems that surfaces vital information for smarter and faster decision making, while also preserving and protecting underlying systems and data. However, while technology investments can be important steps to empowering employees, it is essential to keep in mind that technology, in and of itself, is far from sufficient in order to accomplish the goal of better business outcomes. Organizations in both private and public sectors need to develop a culture of innovation and empowerment that incents prudent risk-taking by employees.

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